Category: married persons

‘The peerage system is sexist because husbands of baronesses are still referred to as ‘Mr’, according to one of Britain’s leading divorce lawyers. While the wife of a male peer is known as ‘Lady’, husbands of female peers are not awarded courtesy titles. It is an enduring symbol of inequality, according to Baroness Shackleton of Belgravia.’

‘The case of Owens v Owens rocked the legal world in late July, when the Supreme Court decided that Tini Owens could not divorce her husband, despite the court recognising that this could leave her “trapped in an unhappy marriage.” Her husband, Hugh John Owens, had sought to defend against Mrs Owens’ petition for divorce on the grounds that “although never emotionally intense, the marriage had been successful and that he and Mrs Owens had learnt how to “rub along”. In ruling against Mrs Owens, Lord Wilson said the decision “generates uneasy feelings” and suggested that Parliament should consider statutory change. Yet, bearing in mind that statutory change may take some time, is the right to leave an unhappy marriage not also a human right?’

‘The refusal rate for people applying to stay in the UK after suffering domestic violence more than doubled between 2012 and 2016 after the government pledged to make the UK a “hostile environment for illegal immigrants”.’

‘In 2015, his wife started sending him money – first £1,500 then later two payments of £2,000 – telling those whose names would appear on the transactions that Khan was studying or carrying out aid work.’

‘As England debates the future status, role and purpose of civil partnership, its cross-border status should be brought into account. Whilst marriage is almost universally recognised around the world and civil partnership is recognised by those countries with their own civil partnership laws, the legal status of an English civil partnership is not recognised in a number of countries. The civil partners have no different status in law to cohabitants in those countries. This places them in a real difficulty. A little-known and surprising piece of law may come to their aid. But should civil partnerships be continued now there is same-sex marriage including in view of the position abroad?’

‘A UK law requirement that a transgender woman annul her marriage before she is entitled to a full gender recognition certificate is unlawful to the extent that it impacts on state pension entitlement, an EU legal adviser has said.’

‘As Nicholas Cusworth QC, sitting as a deputy High Court judge, stated in JB v MB [2015] EWHC 1846 (Fam), where addressing post-separation accrual, he was dealing with a ‘lawless science’ and therefore the outcome he reached ‘may be arbitrary to a degree’.’

‘The Home Office was wrong to deny the Algerian husband of a dual British-Spanish citizen the right to live with her in the UK, according to the initial opinion of the European court of justice’s advocate general in a test case.’

‘Liberal Democrat foreign affairs spokesman Tom Brake says that she has supported President Assad’s regime and therefore should be stripped of her British citizenship. It is not said she has personally been involved in any war crimes or similar or to have sanctioned such atrocities. Mr Brake seems to consider that holding and expressing a political opinion — an awful one, let us be clear — is sufficient to justify depriving a person of their citizenship.’

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